Reporting on tasks from Outlook

When you install the Project add-in for Outlook, you can view your tasks in various ways and begin reporting on them from Outlook. First, the add-in creates a Project Web Access toolbar that remains visible in all Outlook views. It’s from this toolbar that you can import new assignments and send progress updates to Project Web Access.

Figure 6: The Project Web Access toolbar.

By using the add-in you can:

• Specify 100% if the resource is to work the full time on the assignment. This is the default for all assignments.
• Import new and updated tasks from your timesheet in Project Web Access.
• View your assignments in the Outlook Calendar and in Outlook Today.
• Report on the progress of task assignments from Outlook.
• Receive reminders on tasks and customize when and how you get them.
• Create a custom view of your Project Professional tasks.
• Log on to another Project Server to report on tasks in other projects.

Additionally, step-by-step Help about the add-in is available in Outlook by pointing to Project Web Access on the Tools menu.

Importing and updating tasks

When you import tasks, all tasks assigned to you are imported according to the date range defined in Project Web Access. By default, they are placed directly on your calendar as free appointments. Each appointment name is the same as the Project Professional task name (see Figure 2).

A new Project Web Access tab is also added to the appointment (Figure 7). Like your other appointments, at any time you can change your Project Professional tasks to display as busy time. Do this by right-clicking the calendar item, pointing to Show Time As, and then clicking Busy.

You can also change the default behavior of free versus busy time for importing your Project Professional task assignments (see Figure 10). On the Project Web Access tab, click the Options button, and then choose the availability option you want.

Figure 7: A Project Web Access tab installs with the add-in, the place where you adjust information.

Comments on a task are also imported from Project Web Access. They are placed in the body of the Appointment tab, the default view when you open a task in your calendar.

By default, the importing and updating of tasks are set to manual modes. For a given time period, all tasks are imported, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: The Import Assignments from Project Web Access dialog box, which you can turn off at anytime so it does not appear each time you import tasks.

When you update your Project Professional assignments, you can choose which tasks you want to send updates for to Project Web Access. Simply clear the check boxes for those tasks you’re not ready to update, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: The Update Assignments to Project Web Access dialog box, which you can turn off at anytime and where you can choose the tasks you want to update.

Alternately, you can set tasks to import and update automatically at regular intervals by day, week, or month. From Outlook, you can also change the date range for tasks you import (Figure 10). If, for example, you want to plan ahead and get all your tasks for the next month, you can set the date range in Outlook accordingly.

Figure 10: From the Tools menu in Outlook, a Project Web Access tab is added to the Options dialog, wherein you can change how you work with tasks assigned to you.

Reminders work according to the default settings in Outlook. Advanced options let you turn them off completely or set the time intervals as you want.

Should a task change in Project Web Access after you’ve imported it, that change will be reflected in Outlook the next time you import.

Next

Tracking modes for updating Project tasks in Outlook